I only recently (read: this past Saturday) became infatuated with TLW after a guitar buddy exhorted me to go see them. One of the many things he liked about them was the sound of John's guitar. I have to agree, and I think it's refreshing as hell to hear a maple-bodied Ric through a SparkleDrive. The brightest guitar tone I've heard live in a VERY long time.

I noticed John's Ric was sporting conventional PAF-style humbuckers rather than any kind of Ric pickups. If John is reading this (or anyone else that might have heard this discussion elsewhere), what was your reason for popping the new pups in the Ric? Was it for a change in tone, or just for more output? Either way, what difference in sound did you get from the change (assuming you didn't just buy it that way in the first place)?

Also, I was at the all-ages show on Saturday (I'm married, so I lack the necessary mating drive that motivates people to stay out all night at clubs), so I don't know what the 'guitar problem' was at the later show. What went wrong?

My Rickenbacker, a '66, was purchased for $600 at the Trading Musician back in '94, and it already had the humbuckers in it. It also had a 9v 'preamp' under the pickguard for extra 'boost', but I took that out immediately. The pick-ups are actually early '70's Gibsons. They make the Rick sound totally different from anything else I've ever played, bright and chimey but still thick. If the damn thing ever breaks I'm screwed.

My guitar problems were down to a set of faulty cables, (purchased a month and a half ago at guitar center) that mystically decided to short out all at once. So that when I tried to isolate the problem, (by trying one cable and then another), the problem persisted, making me think it was my amps shorting out, or my guitar actually shorting out. During a show is the worst time to trouble-shoot, and since the cables were practically brand new I had no reason to suspect them. Live and learn.

I purchased my '91 Ric 330 on eBay a year ago, which in retrospect was pretty risky business, but I lucked-out big time and am very happy with that purchase. PLUS, when people buy new Rics I get to say things like "yeah, the body on mine was hand made . . . they don't do that anymore, you know . . . yeah, all machine cut . . . it totally effects the sound . . . oh, and I paid like 150 less than you did."

Unfortnately, I've never met anyone who owns a new(er) Ric. Also, I'm not an asshole.